Valve access barrel for use in streets

ABSTRACT

A barrel body structure having a bottom flange and open top and bottom ends has detachably connected to it a cover closing said barrel body structure at said top end thereof. A pilot extension is carried by said cover and depends into said barrel body structure and engages the same. The cover has a largest outside diameter which is smaller than the outside diameter of said barrel body structure at said top end thereof. Said cover is formed with a downwardly facing, conical seat face. The barrel body structure is formed with an upwardly facing, conical seat face in mating engagement with said seat face of said cover.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Erwin Hawle 1,133,386 3/1915 Lofton137/364X Wagreinerstrasse l3, Vocklabruck, Austria 1,600,761 9/ 1 926Haase t 137/364X [21 Appl. No. 808,579 3,267,957 8/1966 Glennon 137/364E giled d rig-9 51,9172 FOREIGN PATENTS atente e priority p 1968 589,2686/1947 Great Britain 137/364 [33] Austria Primary Examiner-Henry T.Klinksiek [3] A3564/68 Attorney-Kurt Kelman [54] VALVE ACCESS BARREL FORUSE IN STREETS ABSTRACT: A barrel body structure having a bottom flange6 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs. and open top and bottom ends has detachablyconnected to it a cover closing said barrel body structure at said topend U-S- thereofi A extension is carried said cover and depends l "1'-Cl F16? 5/00 into said barrel body structure and engages the same. TheFleld 0f c ver has a largest outside diameter is maller than the 72outside diameter of Said barrel body structure at said top end thereof.Said cover is formed with a downwardly facing, conil56] References Citedcal seat face. The barrel body structure is formed with an up- UNITEDSTATES PATENTS wardly facing, conical seat face in mating engagementwith 906,886 12/ 1 908 Jacob 137/368 said seat face of said cover.

PATENTEUFEB 9191! 3561.470

sum 1 OF 3 INVISN'IUR. ERW HAM/L? PATENTEU FEB 9197! 356L470 SHEET 2 OF3 VALVE ACCESS BARREL FOR USE IN STREETS Valve access barrels for use instreets consist, as a rule of a frustoconical or cylindrical, hollowbarrel body, which is provided with a bottom flange, open at the bottomand adapted to be closed by a cover at its top, and are incorporated inthe street so that their top end face or the top face of the cover isaligned with the street surface and the barrel shields on all sides thetop endportion of the actuating stem or the like of the valvesincorporated in underground water mains so that a wrench can be appliedto the end portion of the stem whenthe cover has been removed.

It is an object of the invention to provide a valve access barrel which,is simple in structure, can be adjusted to different street levelswithout need for additional alterations and ensures a good fixation ofthe cover without need for special fixing parts.

The invention relates to a valve access barrel which comprises a hollowbarrel body, which is frustoconical or cylindrical, provided with abottom flange, open at the bottom and adapted to be closed at the top bya cover and to be increased in height by selectively usable, annularattachments, the barrel body, attachments and cover having conical seatfaces which mate each other, the outside diameter of the attachmentscorresponding to the outside diameter of the barrel body at the topthereof and the largest outside diameter of the cover being smaller thansaid outside diameter of the barrel body at the top thereof. In such avalve access barrel, the above-mentioned object is accomplished in thatthe cover is adapted to fit directly into the barrel body and eachattachment and carries a pilot extension, known per se, which extendsinto the barrel body and preferably cooperates with ribs of the barrelbody. Because the cover need not be inserted into a separate connectorbut may be inserted into each attachment as well as into the barrel bodyitself, there is no need for the previous connector, which could beclosed only by the cover. The basic structure now consists only of thebarrel body and the cover. The selectively usable attachments may simplyhave an annular configuration. If the height of the valve access barrelis to be increased because the street level is to be changed, it issufficient to remove the cover, apply the proper attachment and closethe latter with the cover. There is no need to break away streetcovering material surrounding the barrel because the top end face of thebarrel or cover is exposed in any case and there is no need to lift apart which has a cylindrical periphery bonded to the concrete or othermaterial of the street covering. As the pilot extension is carried bythe cover itself and extends into the barrel body through any attachmentwhich has been interposed, and the barrel body has also ribs whichcooperate with the pilot extension, the cover will be reliably held inany case without need for a fixing bolt or the like. It will beunderstood that the pilot extension of the cover will locate anyattachment in position because it extends through the same.

In a development of the invention, each of the conical seat faces of thebarrel body, attachments and cover is downwardly adjoined by acylindrical centering surface, which may be subsequently machinedwithout special expenditure so that the fitting of the mating parts willbe further improved.

Old valve access barrels having a cylindrical or prismatic seat for thecover are often still installed in streets. To enable a modification ofsuch barrels or to increase them in height according to the teachings ofthe invention, a usual barrel body having a cylindrical or prismaticseat for the cover is provided with a transitional attachment, whichfits said seat and forms a conical seat face and an adjoining centeringsurface for the cover and any remaining attachment and carries a hollowcylindrical guide, which depends into the barrel body and serves toguide the pilot extension of the cover. Said guide may be divided intosegments.

Several embodiments of the invention are shown by way of example on thedrawing, in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, are a vertical axial sectional view and ahorizontal transverse sectional view taken on line Il-II of FIG. 1 andshow a built-in valve access barrel.

FIG. 3 is an axial sectional view showing a valve access barrel with twoattachments before theparts are assembled.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are top plan views showing two different covers. I

FIG. 6 is an axial sectional view showing the top portion of a valveaccess assembly provided with a cover.

FIG. 7 is a bottom view showing the cover of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an axial sectional view showing an old valve access barrelprovided with a transitional attachment.

The valve access barrel comprises a frustoconical, hollow barrel body 1,which has a bottom flange 2 and an open bottom and is closed at its topby a cover 3. The barrel body is provided with conical seat faces 4 forengaging the cover; these seat faces are downwardly adjoined bycylindrical centering surfaces 5. The cover 3 carriers a hollowcylindrical pilot extension 6, which extends into the barrel body andcooperates with three longitudinally extending, radial ribs 7 formed inthe barrel body. The pilot extension may be formed with longitudinalslots dividing it into segments. The cover is formed with an undercutcentral bore 8, at which the cover can be engaged and lifted. The bore 8has two diametral slots 9, which extend to the periphery of the undercutportion I0 (FIG. 4) so that a wrench which is provided at its end with acrosspin or which is formed like a hammer head can be inserted and thenturned to interlock with the cover 3. FIG. 5 shows a modification inwhich the bore 8a is oval and flares downwardly to form the cylindricalundercut portion 10.

As is shown in FIG. 3, the height of the barrel may be changed andadjusted to a desired street level by the use of annular attachments 11,11a of different height on the barrel body 1. These attachments ll, Ilahave conical seat faces 4 and cylindrical centering surfaces 5 likethose of the cover 3 and the barrel body I so that the cover 3 can beinserted into any of the attachments ll, Ila just as into the barrelbody I. The attachments are provided at their periphery with protrudingnoses 12, by which the attachments are anchored in the surroundingstreet covering against rotation.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the pilot extension of thecover 3 is formed by three longitudinally extending, radial ribs 611,which bear on transverse ribs 7a of the barrel body 1.

According to FIG. 8, the barrel bodly la has a conventional, cylindricalseat 13 for engaging the cover. The existing cover is hinged to aneccentric pin, which extends through the bore I4 and is capable of alimited axial displacement so that the cover can be lifted out andpivotally moved to the side. To alter such an old barrel in accordancewith the teachings of the invention, the existing cover and its mountingpin are removed. A mating transitional attachment I5 is inserted intothe seat 13 for the cover and is formed with the conical seat face 4 andthe adjoining centering surface 5 for a new cover or the attachments.The transitional attachment I5 carries a hollow cylindrical guide 16,which depends into the barrel body la iand is divided into individualsegments. The guide 16 serves to guide the pilot extension of the cover.In this case, the pilot extension of the cover must also belongitudinally slotted so as to accommodate the portion which is formedwith the bore 14. Hence, the transitional attachment l5 enables anincrease of the height of old valve access barrels and a provisionthereof with the cover according to the invention.

Iclaim:

l. A valve access barrel for use in streets, which comprises a barrelbody structure having a bottom flange and open top and bottom ends, acover detachably connected to and closing said top end thereof, and apilot extension carried by said cover and depending into said barrelbody structure and engaging the same, said cover having a largestoutside diameter which is smaller than the outside diameter of saidbarrel body structure at said top end thereof and being formed with adownwardly facing, conical seat face, said barrel body structure beingformed with an upwardly facing, conical seat face in mating engagementwith said seat face of said cover, and comprising an annular attachmentstructure which is formed with said open top end of said barrel bodystructure and said upwardly facing, conical scat face, and with adownwardly facing conical seat face, and a barrel body member detachablyconnected to said annular attachment structure and formed with saidbottom flange and said open bottom and with an upwardly facing, conicalseat face in mating engagement with said downwardly facing, conical seatface of said attachment structure, said barrel body member having anopen top end, where it has the same outside diameter as said annularattachment at the top end of said barrel body structure, said downwardlyfacing, conical seat face of said cover being matingly engageable withsaid upwardly facing, conical seat face of said barrel body member whensaid annular attachment has been removed from said barrel body memberand said cover, and said pilot extension depending into and engagingsaid barrel body member.

2. A valve access barrel as set forth in claim 1, in which said barrelbody member is formed on its inside with ribs engaging said pilotextension.

3. A valve access barrel as set forth in claim 2, in which:

said ribs of said barrel body member comprise longitudinally extending,radial ribs; and

said pilot-extension comprises a hollow cylinder.

4. A valve access barrel as set forth in claim 1, in which said barrelbody member, annular attachment structure and cover are formed each witha cylindrical centering surface downwardly adjoining each of saidconical seat faces thereof.

5. A valve access barrel as set forth in claim 1, in which saidattachment structure is formed on its periphery with protruding noses.

6. A valve access barrel as set forth in claim 1, in which said barrelbody member is frustoconical.

1. A valve access barrel for use in streets, which comprises a barrelbody structure having a bottom flange and open top and bottom ends, acover detachably connected to and closing said top end thereof, and apilot extension carried by said cover and depending into said barrelbody structure and engaging the same, said cover having a largestoutside diameter which is smaller than the outside diameter of saidbarrel body structure at said top end thereof and being formed with adownwardly facing, conical seat face, said barrel body structure beingformed with an upwardly facing, conical seat face in mating engagementwith said seat face of said cover, and comprising an annular attachmentstructure which is formed with said open top end of said barrel bodystructure and said upwardly facing, conical seat face, and with adownwardly facing conical seat face, and a barrel body member detachablyconnected to said annular attachment structure and formed with saidbottom flange and said open bottom and with an upwardly facing, conicalseat face in mating engagement with said downwardly facing, conical seatface of said attachment structure, said barrel body member having anopen top end, where it has the same outside diameter as said annularattachment at the top end of said barrel body structure, said downwardlyfacing, conical seat face of said cover being matingly engageable withsaid upwardly facing, conical seat face of said barrel body member whensaid annular attachment has been removed from said barrel body memberand said cover, and said pilot extension depending into and engagingsaid barrel body member.
 2. A valve access barrel as set forth in claim1, in which said barrel body member is formed on its inside with ribsengaging said pilot extension.
 3. A valve access barrel as set forth inclaim 2, in which: said ribs of said barrel body member compriselongitudinally extending, radial ribs; and said pilot extensioncomprises a hollow cylinder.
 4. A valve access barrel as set forth inclaim 1, in which said barrel body member, annular attachment structureand cover are formed each with a cylindrical centering surfacedownwardly adjoining each of said conical seat faces thereof.
 5. A valveaccess barrel as set forth in claim 1, in which said attachmentstructure is formed on its periphery with protruding noses.
 6. A valveaccess barrel as set forth in claim 1, in which said barrel body memberis frustoconical.